The Legend of Jerk Shep
by ShadowRanger10
Summary: Not every hero is great. Sometimes they're jerks. And the galaxy will just have to deal with it. Story follows all three games.
1. Chapter 1

We can't pick our heroes.

Sometimes, we get the upstanding paragon. A man who plays by the rules to get things done.

Sometimes, we get the ruthless renegade, who prioritizes efficiency above all else.

This is the story of an entirely different kind of hero.

This is the story of Paolo Shepard.

A jerk.

We start our story of Shepard's meteoric rise at it's very start: Eden Prime. He was perfect then, the dashing hero, coming in to save the damsel in distress-later experiences show that he had a thing for that-playing the part of the chosen one, the one man who could take in the visions of the Prothean beacon. Yes, he was magnificent.

Except, of course, for those times he was not. None of the history books will tell you about Jenkins, the young soldier who died under the callous commander's watch. Jenkins' family never heard a word. After a month of silence from her son, no vidmails, no messages, nothing, the boy's mother started writing letters to the captain of the Normandy, asking what had happened to her child. Every evening she would write, and every day brought the fresh pain of dashed hopes when she still had no son and no answers. The commander finally responded three months later, once she'd already given up her sweet boy as lost. The note contained one line, and seeing the message on her terminal made her heart drop. The subject line read: "Dead".

Very few people bother mentioning that Ashley Williams was far from a "distressed damsel," and would have bitten the head off any fool who dared call her anything of the sort. Unfortunately for her, she never recognized the undercurrent of condescension in Shepard's words that day, given that she was still coming down from an adrenaline rush. Maybe if she had, things would have been different. Of course, Ash and Shepard's story is more complicated than that...I'm sorry, there will be more on that later, some memories are not easily revisited.

No one ever mentions the cold, calculating look in his eyes when Nihlus was shot. No one says a word about how quickly he strode past the Specter's corpse. No one dares discuss the slight note of admiration in his voice whenever he spoke of Saren. After all, no one wants to cross Commander Shepard.

Indeed, no one on that mission ever confronted the commander about the flat, emotionless void he remained while watching the colonists impaled, or the vicious rictus of a smile on his face as he cut down waves of incoming husks, the horrifying remains of the colonists he had been sent to defend. It was better for everyone to maintain silence. After all, what hero would act like that? And make no mistake, Shepard is without a doubt, a hero.

But this isn't the story of a hero. This is the story of Shepard. Just another jerk.


	2. Chapter 2

There's a reason why the Coucil of the time is largely regarded now as one of the most incompetent of all time. No one with a thimble's worth of sense would have given Shepard the kind of power his Spectre status afforded him. Anderson made the right call, he packed his bags and vacated the Normandy as soon as it was official. A ship was a small price to pay for his continued sanity.

Shepard's reign as captain of the Normandy was a traumatizing one for his crew. On the surface, he was a perfectly pleasant man, always ready with his now trademark frozen smile, the one that was so at odds with the coldness of his gaze. Of course, that was only in public. It was an open secret with the crew that when the commander said he needed to talk to you, nothing good was about to happen. Navigator Pressly knew that especially well.

"You wanted to see me, Commander?" Pressly said, stepping into the captain's quarters.

"Yeah, I think we need to set the record straight on a few things."

"Did something happen?"

"You tell me. I've heard you haven't been getting along with the aliens on my crew."

"With all due respect Commander, I don't think we should involve them in the hunt for Saren. This is a human problem and we can deal with it ourselves. If humanity wants to make progress, we'll need to stand on our own two feet. Don't worry though, Commander, it won't be a problem."

"You're right. It's won't."

Something in Shepard's tone made Pressly tense up. Still, he didn't expect it when Shepard grabbed him by the shoulders and head butted him hard enough to make the world black out for a minute.

"You'll learn to live with them. Consider this lesson one on dealing with krogan. I trust this won't be an issue any longer."

Pressly sent out his transfer request the next day, but it never worked out. The Alliance wasn't about to start questioning the first human Spectre.

Especially not when he was as effective as Shepard. His first official mission as a Spectre, recovering Dr. Tsoni, was labelled a great success despite the destruction of the dig site. It made things harder for the crew, when he started establishing his reputation as humanity's greatest soldier. He started getting just a little bit bolder, a bit more intense with his "punishments", rumors of which had started circulating, in hushed whispers, among the humans on the crew since the incident with Pressly.

Make no mistake though, the aliens on the crew weren't spared either. Their trials were just different, more insidious. Liara, certainly, could attest to that. She was so naive when she first came on board, and he knew exactly which buttons to push. He acted the perfect gentleman. Checked up on her often, was interested in finding out more about the asari, about her. She trusted him. He never treated her with suspicion, even though she was the daughter of the enemy. He listened when she spoke and always asked questions. Maybe too many questions. He always seemed more interested, more alert, when she talked to him about things look asari commandos or Thessian politics. She didn't notice this at the time though. No, at the time she was just happy to have made a friend. And later, more than a friend. She was so happy when he said he was interested in her too! So happy, she let her guard down. So happy, she ignored all the signs, all the little red flags that kept popping up everywhere.

That changed after Feros though. A lot of things were different after Feros.


End file.
